Nyam is described here by Karmapa in a most positive way, and he is describing the highest aspect of nyam, the continuation of great joy without any kind of clinging to it. Usually what happens, is that when you feel really good, you get attached to it. And then you talk about it. And you might write about it, might even make a movie about it. [laughter] You might do all kinds of things. Then the nyam is gone. The nyam just ends right there. Nyam can never become tokpa if we announce the nyam. So, it is a dangerous threshold for the practitioner who is progressing rapidly.

Another term for that kind of situation is barchay in Tibetan, which means obstacle. And the greater the achievement, the bigger the obstacle, naturally. That doesn’t mean somebody is waiting for you with different kinds of hammers, and if somebody is really progressing well, they use the bigger one. [laughter] It’s not like that. But the bigger the positives in your practice, the bigger the negatives, naturally. Not all the way, but until a certain stage. It doesn’t go on like that all the way to buddhahood. Then a buddha’s negativity and a buddha’s obstacle would be extremely big. Yes? The path to Buddhahood doesn’t go on to the very end that way, but until a certain level there is this kind of obstacle. We have a saying: “The brighter the light, the sharper the shadow”. In the same way, obstacles come along together with the path and its nyam – like a shadow and the form it follows.

Having prayed for perfect nyam, The Gyalwa Karmapa in the sixth shloka prays for tokpa, actual realization:

Longing for good and clinging to experiences are self-liberated.

Negative thoughts and confusion purify naturally in ultimate space.

In ordinary mind there is no rejecting and accepting, loss and gain.

May simplicity, the truth of the ultimate essence of phenomena, be realized.

From one point of view, clinging to a nyam may be kind of nice, so you hold onto it. It’s so precious, it is so great, you hold onto it. But that is attachment, and Karmapa says may this be spontaneously freed, and he prays that we never get attached to nyam; he prays that good nyam and any kind of attachment will be spontaneously freed. In the second sentence, The Gyalwa Karmapa says that if the nyam is sometimes frightening and fears arise, not attachment, but fear, then may it dissolve into the ultimate space. May fear, the negativity aspect, also be freed.

In the third sentence, Karmapa discusses ordinary mind, the nature of mind, the nature of this ordinary mind, free from accepting and rejecting. That means that even though we are ordinary sentient beings the nature of our mind is buddha. We don’t have to be extraordinary in order for our true nature to be buddha. Even in the ordinary now the essence is buddha. Karmapa prays that we recognize and realize this. In the last sentence, The Gyalwa Karmapa prays that one may realize the ultimate essence of everything beyond any kind of dualistic fabrication.

That is total realization, which is tokpa in Tibetan, the realization that comes after the nyam. He prays for perfect tokpa, right after praying for perfect nyam. With this, the six particular prayers related to the meditation are complete.

The third section concerns the action – the view, the meditation, and now the action. The Third Gyalwa Karmapa writes prayers about mahamudra action, what takes place in the postmeditation experience, in two shlokas. The first shloka concerns compassion; the second concerns the unity of compassion and emptiness:

The true nature of beings is always buddha.

Not realizing that, they wander in endless samsara.

For the boundless suffering of sentient beings,

May unbearable compassion be conceived in our being.

This is regarding compassion. I think I spoke to you yesterday about compassion and devotion. The Third Gyalwa Karmapa writes very clearly about that particular point in these four lines. He says the nature of all sentient beings is always buddha. Every single sentient being is always buddha in their essence, always. Then he says, because of their lack of realization of this, they are wandering in samsara. They are wandering in samsara because they don’t recognize their own true nature. Samsara is nothing more and nothing less than beings – not knowing and not recognizing that they are buddha. Until we fully realize that, we are in samsara; when we fully realize that, we are buddha. That is the definition of samsara here.

In the third line, Karmapa states that sentient beings in samsara are suffering without any end to their suffering. So long as we are in samsara suffering has no end. We will do everything to overcome our suffering, of course. If we don’t have enough money, we might take out a loan and do all sorts of things. Some people even rob banks. People will do anything, but it does not solve their suffering. We want to have good health, of course, so we take good care of ourselves. Some of us have good health, some of us don’t. But then somehow having good health does not solve the problem of suffering. Some people want power. They do this, they do that to obtain it. They stand for election; they stand for all kinds of things. And they may even get everything, but it does not solve their suffering.

Looking at things from this perspective, the real suffering of sentient beings isn’t hunger. Hunger is one kind of suffering, but suffering is not limited to the hungry and sick. Sometimes, when people talk about suffering, they think that suffering means pain, sickness, lack of money, and only these sorts of things.

But, according to the Buddha’s teachings on suffering, suffering is the struggle and the constant dissatisfaction of life. That is the suffering he’s talking about. That will continue as long as we are in samsara.

In the last line, Karmapa prays that unbearable compassion may be born within us. Now, it sounds as though unbearable here means that you’re so compassionate that you can’t stand it, and you scream and yell and jump up and down, something like that. But it doesn’t mean that. Zömay means that we are unable to ignore the suffering. We will not just go about our own business. Because of knowing what the potential of all sentient beings is, because of knowing that every sentient being is, in essence, a buddha, then we put our own effort into realizing Buddhahood in order to benefit all sentient beings. That is the idea of unbearable here. We can’t afford to be lethargic. Compassion is so strong that it will not allow us to be lethargic. It will not allow us to be selfish. That is what unbearable compassion is.

The second particular prayer of this section is about the unity of emptiness and compassion, written in four sentences:

When the energy of unbearable compassion is unceasing,

In expressions of loving kindness, the truth of its essential emptiness is nakedly clear.

This unity is the supreme unerring path.

Inseparable from it, may we meditate day and night.

The first sentence says that the strength and the power of this compassion, which he earlier described as unbearable, is always alive. Compassion never dies. It is always alive. And when this compassion manifests as loving kindness, the essence and the nature of it is the naked and bare manifestation of emptiness. That means that true compassion, which is not dualistic, compassion which is not stubborn, compassion which is not selfish, compassion which is empty and open, and is all-pervading, that is beyond any kind of limitation to compassion. When this compassion manifests as loving kindness, then its ultimate essence, which is emptiness, manifests as it is, without any cover, without any kind of skins on it, bare.

In the third sentence, he says that there is no way that the unity of compassion and emptiness can go wrong. Golsa means that there is a kind of way to go wrong. If you are traveling down a road and come to a junction that has three or four different forks, then you can make a mistake. But there isn’t any way to make a mistake if compassion and emptiness are in unity. Then nothing can go wrong. So, golsa drelway means that there is no way to get it wrong. He says, lam chok, which means the profound, the best, the correct path. the unity of compassion and emptiness. In the last line, he prays, may one practice this day and night, at all times. This completes the second prayer in the section on the action, regarding the unity of emptiness and compassion.

The last and fifth section is praying for the final accomplishment of the fruition, the unmistaken, correct fruition of the path. Actually, Karmapa writes it exactly as the fruition of the completion of the path, in four lines:

By the power of meditation arise the eyes and supernormal perceptions,

Sentient beings are ripened and buddha fields are perfectly purified,

The aspirations that accomplish the qualities of a buddha are fulfilled.

By bringing these three to utmost fruition – fulfilling, ripening, and purifying – may utmost buddhahood be manifest.

In these four sentences, The Third Gyalwa Karmapa describes the Buddha, the final enlightenment of buddhahood, in a simple but comprehensive manner. He says that the result of the strength of meditation, which develops through the practice of mahamudra, through the meditation on the nature of mind, is that one attains the “eyes”. Chen in Tibetan means eyes. In Buddhism in general, and in mahayana and vajrayana Buddhism in particular, a buddha’s qualities are described in this manner: five eyes and five ngönshe, which is hard to translate. Lots of people say something like clairvoyance. But I don’t think it is the same thing. Ngönshe means knowing beyond the limitation of time and distance.

Someone who has ngönshe will know the future, will know everything. That is what we call ngönshe. There are five aspects of ngönshe. Our ordinary eyes see forms and colors of forms. Beyond this, Karmapa is describing how buddhas see everything – and these eyes represent five different aspects of seeing everything – ngönshe. It doesn’t mean buddha has five eyes. But then, the Karmapa did not mention all the details here. So, the simple way to look at this is that the eyes represent the omniscient quality of the buddha, which quality is the result of the power of meditation.

This ngönshe is gradually obtained with varying degrees of limitation. Before you attain the enlightenment of buddhahood you will have ngönshe to see the past, present, and future. etc. You will have the quality of these five eyes, but it will be limited. For example, a first-level bodhisattva can manifest in 100 physical forms in 100 physical locations all at the same time. That is one of the miracles of the first-level bodhisattva as far as physical form is concerned.* The second-level bodhisattva has all of these special qualities and insights multiplied by 100. That means that the second-level bodhisattva can manifest 10,000 manifestations at the same time etc. In this way, the five eyes and the five ngönshe get more and more limitless, but at the beginning they are limited. Like people like me. I have a hard time even manifesting in one form correctly most of the time. [laughter] So, this is a way of describing enlightenment by referring to these particular eyes and particular ngönshe. And The Third Gyalwa Karmapa is saying that as one progresses along the path these special qualities gradually develop from being limited to being limitless.

Then he says, may we benefit beings. However, for benefiting sentient beings, here he uses a very particular word, min, which means ripen. A fruit which is not min is a green one. You can’t eat it, it is very sour, it is very hard. It is very hard to digest. Once it becomes min, then it is really good. It tastes good, it’s soft, it’s good for the health. I think a superficial word for that is to ripen. Karmapa says, ripen sentient beings. This means that, although you can’t change sentient beings’ essence, because they are all buddha and, therefore, don’t have to change anything – they are good just as they are – still their essence has to ripen in its manifestation, because right now they don’t talk like a buddha. They don’t think like a buddha, they don’t behave like a buddha. And sometimes they even do totally wrong things.

That means they are not ripe. So, it is the compassionate aspiration and the compassionate activity of the buddha to make beings ripe, so that their inner essence may manifest and become more apparent, so that they may become more kind and more compassionate, and then have the ability to be more compassionate and kind, too.

Many people would like to be kind, but don’t exactly know how to. There is a very common saying, that kind people always suffer. They say things like that, that good people always suffer, which is not true. It doesn’t have to be that way. When a good person suffers, that means the person has good intentions, but somehow things are not right, so that their kindness is not working. It doesn’t mean that all kind people have to suffer, does it? The problem is that there is no power together with their kindness; there is kindness, but their kindness doesn’t have power. So that when you do something, instead of other people really appreciating it and being happy and benefitting from what you do, they somehow resent it, and you get into trouble. Or something similar. So, min means everything, every aspect of the essential qualities of beings has to be ripened.

At the same time, sang gye shing rap jang also has a very particular meaning. A great bodhisattva, after attaining realization, but before attaining buddhahood, receives direct transmission from all the buddhas. That is what we call shing kam, pure land. Superficially speaking, it is like pilgrimaging to all the pure lands. But it is not physical. It is the inspiration and blessing and transmission of all the buddhas to dispense empowerment. That’s what it means. After that, gradually all the qualities of buddha, beyond any limitation, become complete: sang gye chö nam drup pay mönlam dzok. At that stage, the original aspiration such as, I wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, is fulfilled and completely accomplished.

In the mahayana teachings it is very clearly said that enlightenment won’t happen without someone’s first giving rise to enlightenment mind. One has to first have the inspiration to

attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Without this, true enlightenment won’t happen by accident. So, in this way the original inspiration is being fulfilled, beyond any limitation.

Then Karmapa condenses the first three lines into one very short sentence. He says, dzok min jang sum thar jin sang gye shok. Dzok means all the qualities of buddha are complete; min means benefiting sentient beings, and min means benefitting oneself, also, ripening is complete; and jang means that the empowerment by all the buddhas and bodhisattvas is complete. So, The Gyalwa Karmapa prays, may one attain this total enlightenment of Buddhahood – sang gye shok. That concludes the final part of the main body of the prayer.

A Commentary By His Eminence Tai Situ Rinpoche.

“The Aspiration Prayer of Mahamudra, the Definitive Meaning”

Composed by The Lord Protector Rangjung Dorje, Third Gyalwa Karmapa.

Meaning of Unbearable Compassion

In the last line, Karmapa prays that unbearable compassion may be born within us. Now, it sounds as though unbearable here means that you’re so compassionate that you can’t stand it, and you scream and yell and jump up and down, something like that. But it doesn’t mean that. Zömay means that we are unable to ignore the suffering. We will not just go about our own business. Because of knowing what the potential of all sentient beings is, because of knowing that every sentient being is, in essence, a buddha, then we put our own effort into realizing Buddhahood in order to benefit all sentient beings. That is the idea of unbearable here. We can’t afford to be lethargic. Compassion is so strong that it will not allow us to be lethargic. It will not allow us to be selfish. That is what unbearable compassion is.

]]>https://prayerdance.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/mahamudra-upadesa/feed/0prayerdanceThe Union of Consciousness and Social Activismhttps://prayerdance.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/the-union-of-consciousness-and-social-activism/
https://prayerdance.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/the-union-of-consciousness-and-social-activism/#respondTue, 05 Jun 2012 00:01:01 +0000http://prayerdance.wordpress.com/?p=228The Union of Consciousness and Social Activism

Without an Awakened Populace, Democracy Becomes a Farce: the union of consciousness and effective political action unopposed

Modern American education, in general, is a mis-education, which corrupts the innate innocence of future adults, not only because of the lack of social science and the humanities (especially the biased/tilted historical mythology, lack of economic theory, analysis of analysis processing (critical thinking and inquiry), political science, sociology, anthropology, ecology, horticulture, herbology, but moreso, the lack of true physical/health education in terms of learning about our own bodies, health, and procreative function). Modern education substitutes and displaces folk from groundedness in their innate natural curiosity, through conformance mechanisms of mechanical memorization accompanied by lack of questioning ersatz external knowledge systems. After at least sixteen years of this daily compulsory programming, it should not be a wonder that folk have become made incapable of making correct choices in electoral politics. It is no wonder that they have become estranged from their own innate power and sensitivity/feeling to the life-force implicate in all. When the overall context is partial and fragmented, then the data becomes distorted, filtered, and new data becomes blocked/ignored.

Purpose

Divide and conquer tactics have been used by demagogues and dictators to manipulate, control, and distract people for millennia. In the sixties the establishment became frightened that their rule was being threatened by a movement consisting of radical political militants and advocates of consciousness expansion, both heralding a new cultural and political shift. Their coming together was signaled in many ways (for example, the Human Be-in in Golden Gate Park in early 1967). It was a new union of consciousness and effective political action that was attacked through the establishment’s propaganda machine, cointelpro, counterinsurgency, provocateurs, and shills. Nothing would serve the dictators of the world, the Shah of Iran, the Ferdie Marcosians, the Banana Republic dictators, and other international corporate and finance puppets more in reinforcing their own dominance than by having their perceived enemies destroy each other.

Hence, the movement of the sixties had to be divided and conquered by these outside forces who rightly perceived the threat of these two movements (consciousness expansion and radical militant political activism) coming together to create a new world order of abundance, peace, and freedom. That was a decision of status-quo forces who opposed authentic change.

One tactic still used today is to demonize “New Agers”, the New Age Movement (NAM), or what is now called the New World Order as an evil plot by the devil and his cognizanti. Prolific propaganda is rampant decrying Muslim evils, alien invasions, immigrant attacks, demonization of the poor, and all things that question conservative xenophobic Christian ideology. An essential and successful part of this strategy has been to infiltrate and take over both political parties by these same moneyed-self-interest groups in order to further divide and conquer by demonizing both groups (consciousness expansion and radical activists). It is both a culture war created by the anti-democratic established power structure and an attempt to paint needed change to appear radical or bizarre. The following is an attempt to deconstruct this propaganda and to heal the rift fabricated by the power elite to divide and conquer this natural alliance between consciousness and effective social/political and economic activity.

Ancient History: A history of consciousness in action

In the Greek Golden Age, inquiry into the nature of “reality” and “self” was taught as the critical question. In the literature that documented the forums and dialogues pertaining to the Greek ideal of the Whole Man fundamental questions were raised, and authentic dialogue, especially on controversial subjects, was encouraged and debated. The debate was not at all about winning or selling one’s POV, ideology, or ego; but about mutual edification with the dedicated intent to push the envelope toward Knowledge. This is because the Greeks valued knowledge and truth above hubris. “Know thyself” being a central proverbial aphorism from the Greek Golden Age.

Later, in Europe“knowledge” deteriorated into an egoic adornment, something bought and owned by the ego in the forms of tutors, books, memorization of what others said, and the regurgitation of memorized ideology. Thus the decline of Western “civilization” occurred where self-knowledge and truth was corrupted and subjugated by belief systems, rote memorization of acts, and the accumulation of external knowledge/data systems of categorization/order.

Similarly, Buddha also taught self-knowledge, inner inquiry, the knowledge of the instrument of knowing (the mind); while the ancient yogis taught the integration of body, nature, breath, and mind as a living wholistic integrative system. The Western philosophical systems soon became fascinated with the outer/external, while negating or ignoring the instrument of knowing (the mind). At the same time, the Eastern systems did both inner and outer. After the Holy Roman Empire colonized all of Europe both spiritually and politically, self-inquiry had become entirely replaced by Church ideology requiring severe punishment for those who would rebel or question (but kept alive by small groups of mystics, alchemists, gnostics, magicians, illuminati, masons and others who operated secretly in order to avoid persecution). While god become exiled to a remote inaccessible heaven and Europe fell into the dark ages, the East prospered intellectually, artistically, philosophically, and was left in relative peace until the invasions from the Middle Eastern religious and ideological crusaders/colonists.

Therefore, it seems that critical thought or the ability to discern and analyze for ourselves, irrespective of an external authority, guidelines, peer pressure, or established paradigms/belief systems, is dependent upon knowing who is inquiring (the true nature of the mind) first, and then focusing on relevant objects of inquiry. Thus analysis of “the self” (self-analysis) is the first object of knowledge, or put in psychological terms knowledge of the mind. Since the nature of the human mind is embedded in the nature of the human body, and the nature of the human body is embedded in nature/evolution and procreation, and since evolution/creation/procreation is embedded in procreativity/creativity and co-creativity, and since all the former is embedded in beginningless boundless space a healthy wholistic inquiry should integrate all of the above in a practical manner.

Human beings left without direct knowledge of the life force, the natural world, their procreative powers, shamanism, horticulture, co-creation, where they came from, evolution, agricultural systems, life support systems (habitat), and sustainable economics remain insecure, fearful, intimidated, disempowered, and unable to make healthy political choices. They no longer know how to gather or grow food, build shelter, fix their plumbing, fix their automobiles, fix their system of politics, etc., so they become dependent on experts (external authority, ideology, political parties/ideology, or religion), while falling victim to demagoguery or being misled. War or peace thus become mere intellectual concepts, or subject to mere logical decisions. The same disconnected process is then applied to vital issues such as health care, ecological polices, education, crime, economics, agriculture, and all other socio-economic and political issues. In that alienated and fragmented manner, vital issues become decided from an overly objectified paradigm and non-vital cold and dead perspective without being grounded to their core innermost nature. Here, many variations of this degraded miasma my be diagnosed, but why bother. The prognosis is death, without radical surgery and the implantation of stem/core cells. In short, a sick society does not teach children to honor or respect life, life systems, health, peace, or other living beings. Rather they are taught competition, domination, control, war, conflict, and consumerism within a contrived atmosphere of want, scarcity, lust, acquisitiveness, greed, fear, hatred, jealousy, and anger. This programming is normal in our alienated society, but it is profoundly UNNATURAL.

Hence, in that psychic milieu, Democracy is mocked. It is made impossible. Given this manufactured modern human insecurity of not knowing one’s own mind and not knowing sustainable evolutionary economics and politics, then folk do not know how their bread is buttered, why the price of fuel and gasoline goes up and/or down, where their water supply comes from, the factors that affect their medical care, discontent, crime, war, peace, social unrest, etc. This contrived condition works to the advantage of external self-interest groups (would be manipulators/puppetmasters), who desire to make these decisions for them. The average folk, tends to get their information from biased self-interest sources such as the corporate owned media, corporate owned schools and colleges, and the corporate owned government, who are deceptive because of their corrupt agenda.

Strategy

The above describes the samsaric circle, where dumbed down people, listen to media that keep them dumbed down, so that they will support those who are dumbing them down, creating more dumb-me-down institutions and dumbed down folk, etc. Analyzing and breaking this vicious cycle, we either can break the institutions (for example by letting it collapse by not supporting it) or we can undumb the populace (by instilling criticality, creative thought processes, inspiration, and devising methods that will restore within them the ideals/ideas to which they no longer believe). The latter is done through appropriate creative artistic endeavors. Since people both make and break social institutions, we can work on both sides simultaneously. Hence political activism and the evolution of consciousness is intimately linked together, one affecting the other. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

No matter how good a basic or multicultural academic education that can be given to our children, it will come to naught, if they do not understand their intimate co-creative place in relationship to the trees, forests, oceans, whales, stars, the all-creative life force, and timeless beginningless source. Rather, in a fragmented world/paradigm such an education becomes reduced to gaining comparative comfort and material wealth (a temporary wellbeing) in a competitive and corrupt world system/paradigm or rather hell, where folk seek an ersatz happy truce, but will never they find true happiness in that way, guaranteed. For true happiness to come about, an integrative all encompassing context must be recognized and valued, leaving nothing excluded nor in need to be included; thus, it’s recognition by itself will serve as a teaching in itself, complete.

A long time ago and far far away some people suggested that making peace was far cheaper than making war. The leaders of these peaceniks were generally spied upon, infiltrated, set-up, put in jail, or died often mysteriously. One particularly aggressive and paranoid nation, who believed in war (not peace), started making nuclear grade weapons to protect itself from outside evils, but it wound up poisoning its own people and land.

Its aggressive behavior, being careless and brash, had the opposite effect, putting itself in harms way. Not only were these weapons dangerous; but also, in their haste to create the weapons, massive amounts of nuclear waste was produced with nothing more than hair brained plans of disposal. One large problem (what to do with the nuclear waste) caused another disaster in the making (the waste disposal using radioactive steam and radioactive leaks into the water table).

Nuclear waste from weapons production is much more difficult to store, transport, and handle because it is viscous/liquid. The plan was to store these in metal containers 2000 feet deep in the ground near their massive nuclear facility in Hanford, Washington above the Columbia River gorge. Predictably, these steel containers began leaking, while stopping these leaks is a major concern today.

A Little history

Adequately processing weapons grade nuclear waste at Hanford has been an issue for over 20 years, but its solution is still uncertain. Currently construction of a treatment facility at Hanford has been 55% completed, but only 80% of the design work has been completed. This is unheard of in the construction industry. Even so, there is not much confidence that the design will be adequate (see below).

Regardless the major pressing concern is not simply transporting the radioactive waste to the treatment center and then treating it, but moreover how to stop the already leaking steel containers 2000’ deep housing liquid radioactive waste material.

RICHLAND, benton county – “Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation are making big strides in cleaning up the highly radioactive K West Basin, filled with wastes from the production of atomic weapons.

Hanford workers have finished vacuuming the bulk of radioactive sludge from the floor of the basin into underwater containers, leaving bare concrete.

“This is another example of the momentum we continue to sustain in cleaning up the site and eliminating risk to the Columbia River,” Dave Brockman, manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford office, said in a statement.

Completion of the sludge removal task allows the DOE to meet a revised legal deadline and a commitment to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to have the sludge in containers by the end of this month.” However, this does deal with the much larger safety issue is at hand, due to the leakages 2000 feet below the surface heading toward the Columbia River.

In 2007 a $7 billion dollar nuclear liquid waste treatment facility design contract was awarded to Bechtel Corporation. Less than halfway through the design stage, the design work stopped because of design inadequacies; yet the steel storage tanks 2000 feet under ground continue to leak; while nuclear waste gradually approaches the Columbia river underground.

The design work for processing new waste has restarted, while building has already begun, but there is now a concentration of energy devoted toward designing a method to deal with the existing leakage.

“When telling the story of the Cold War, the part that often gets neglected is that the extraction, processing, and purification of plutonium at the Hanford Site was anything but a neat, clean process; in fact, it resulted in a rather extraordinary amount of extremely radioactive and chemically dangerous waste. This waste is absolutely nothing like commercial nuclear waste, and its management has been one of the biggest challenges the US nuclear weapons complex, and consequentially, the Department of Energy, has ever had to deal with.”

In fact, literally billions have been already wasted in designs and construction that are inadequate or at best speculation. Those whistle blowers who are “in the know” have become reprimanded and punished see the above link. “Walter Tamosaitis, once a top engineer in the nation’s nuclear weapons cleanup program, has been relegated to a basement storage room equipped with cardboard-box and plywood furniture with nothing to do for the last year.
Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/07/10/1739586/hanford-engineer-banished-to-basement.html#ixzz1TK1ZcaOB

KENNEWICK — Over the objections of the Department of Energy, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is investigating the possibility of witness tampering by the DOE at the board’s meeting in Kennewick.

The DOE, which said it conducted its own investigation, has asked the weapons board in a sharply worded letter to immediately stop its investigation and close the matter.

The board, commissioned by Congress to provide independent oversight of nuclear safety at the DOE weapons sites, held a rare meeting in October outside Washington, D.C., to hear from the department, its contractors and experts on the operational safety and efficiency of the Hanford vitrification plant under construction.

The board has been concerned that the $12.2 billion plant will be commissioned before several key technical issues are fully resolved.

The plant is not adequate in both scope and safety. Even if it proceeded without further delays the $12 billion dollar nuclear waste treatment plant could not be completed until 2019 at the earliest. Some are suggesting that maybe we do not need all these nuclear weapons.

The money spent at Hanford (it is monstrous) goes under the Department of Energy (DOE) budget, not the Department of Defense (DOD). Hence, the so called defense budget goes grossly under valued. In fact, MOST of the DOE’s budget goes to defense and/or “national security” related projects.

This NPR report deals simply with the problems in the transfer of the nuclear weapons grade waste to the proposed treatment plant, and if the treatment plant will actually work. Again little attention has been devoted to the pressing problem of what to do about the already leaking steel containers buried 2000 feet down.

As the radioactive liquids continue to leak toward the Columbia river much more money is needed to remedy this manmade disaster, but where will it come from? Who will monitor the watch dogs who have obviously failed?

So what is the plan? More nuclear plants?

“WASHINGTON – A large contingent of House Republicans is trying to revive Yucca Mountain as the main site for the nation’s nuclear waste as part of a broader plan that calls for building 200 new nuclear plants by 2030.

If approved, the United States would begin building nuclear plants on an unprecedented scale: Currently, the nation gets 20 percent of its electricity from 104 nuclear reactors.”

But what will they do with the nuclear waste?

“During a debate on the House floor, Nevada Republican Rep. Dean Heller told his colleagues that the Yucca project is dead and that it was time to “acknowledge reality” and find a new site.

“Yucca Mountain is in my district, and our state has been dealing with this boondoggle project literally for decades. … I continue to be disappointed at the House’s insistence of reviving the Yucca Mountain boondoggle,” Heller said.

But Hastings and other Republicans said the House will continue to provide funding for Yucca Mountain in their budgets.”

Can nuclear power plant waste be used to create nuclear weapons? According to the US State Department, the answer is yes, giving Iran as an example. There are may links between nuclear power plants waste and nuclear grade weapons. The first is in the “front-end” where depleted uranium (DU) is used for anti-tank shells, hardened bullets, and other especially hardened weapons.

On the back-side of nuclear power plants is a by-product called plutonium-239 which is highly suitable for building nuclear weapons. Such waste from power plants thus can be further reprocessed is used to make nuclear weapons. The resulting waste is then are liquid and even more hazardous posing many storage problems. Instead of slowing down or stopping the production of these highly toxic poisons until the disposal problems are solved, the US DOE/DOD has not closed or slowed down its nuclear weapons program. This may be due to the fact that the longer the power plant fuel is stored, the easier it is to access and reprocess the plutonium (especially plutonium-239).

A logical question thus may arise to concerned citizens as to the benefits of such uncautious weapon production, their costs to its citizens, and/or whether weapon production can create peace and heighten security or would it just escalate the aura of competition, nuclear arms races, war, and terrorism?

“Since uranium and plutonium are nuclear weapons materials, there have been proliferations concerns. Ordinarily (in spent nuclear fuel), plutonium is reactor-grade plutonium. In addition to plutonium-239, which is highly suitable for building nuclear weapons, it contains large amounts of undesirable contaminants: plutonium-240, plutonium-241, and plutonium-238. These isotopes are difficult to separate, and more cost-effective ways of obtaining fissile material exist (e.g. uranium enrichment or dedicated plutonium production reactors).

High-level waste is full of highly radioactive fission products, most of which are relatively short-lived. This is a concern since if the waste is stored, perhaps in deep geological storage, over many years the fission products decay, decreasing the radioactivity of the waste and making the plutonium easier to access. The undesirable contaminant Pu-240 decays faster than the Pu-239, and thus the quality of the bomb material increases with time (although its quantity decreases during that time as well). Thus, some have argued, as time passes, these deep storage areas have the potential to become “plutonium mines”, from which material for nuclear weapons can be acquired with relatively little difficulty.

Critics of the latter idea point out that the half-life of Pu-240 is 6,560 years and Pu-239 is 24,110 years, and thus the relative enrichment of one isotope to the other with time occurs with a half-life of 9,000 years (that is, it takes 9000 years for the fraction of Pu-240 in a sample of mixed plutonium isotopes, to spontaneously decrease by half—a typical enrichment needed to turn reactor-grade into weapons-grade Pu). Thus “weapons grade plutonium mines” would be a problem for the very far future (>9,000 years from now), so that there remains a great deal of time for technology to advance to solve it.

Pu-239 decays to U-235 which is suitable for weapons and which has a very long half-life (roughly 109 years). Thus plutonium may decay and leave uranium-235. However, modern reactors are only moderately enriched with U-235 relative to U-238, so the U-238 continues to serve as a denaturation agent for any U-235 produced by plutonium decay.”

High-level nuclear waste is produced by nuclear power plants; however the highest level waste is labeled as Transuranic (TRU) waste. This is the type of waste that is produced by nuclear weapons production.

Such waste has been shipped overland to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), which began operations on March 26, 1999. Disposal operations are expected to continue until 2070 with active monitoring for a further hundred years. By 2010, the facility had already processed 9,000 shipments of waste. Research is ongoing on the disturbed rock zone geomechanics at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. WIPP accepts transuranic waste generated from DOD activities. The waste must have radioactivity exceeding 100 nCi per gram from TRUs that produce alpha radiation with a half life greater than 20 years. This criterion includes plutonium, uranium, americium, and neptunium among others. Mixed waste contains both radioactive and hazardous constituents. WIPP first received mixed waste on September 9, 2000. Mixed waste is regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

These containers may also contain a limited amount of liquids. The energy released from radioactive materials will dissociate water into hydrogen and oxygen. This could then create a potentially explosive environment inside the container. The containers must be vented, as well, to prevent this from happening. There are many dangers, especially if water ever leaks into the storage vessels.

“Internal DOE documents cite instances of accidents, worker contamination and radioactive releases to the environment. DOE managers have even mentioned these incidents to superiors in Washington, D.C. and other federal agencies when arguing that a “stabilization run” will make the PFP safer. A typical example: “A flash fire from accumulated hydrogen gas in a nitrate storage container occurred at PFP in July 1976. The incident resulted in significant operator exposure and room contamination.”

However, the DOE tells the public a different story. DOE’s September 1993 edition of Citizen Bulletin claims: “The Plutonium Reclamation Facility (a processing line inside the PFP) has operated safely for many years.”

In fact, the 42-year old plant was shut down following a string of safety violations in which workers were contaminated and plant operations violated guidelines intended to prevent “criticality.” Criticality is an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction. Two Hanford whistleblowers who went public with stories of numerous safety violations at the PFP were subsequently harassed and fired by the Westinghouse Hanford Company, which operates the PFP and other Hanford facilities under a contract with DOE.” http://wafreepress.org/06/Hanford.html

A pilot plan has failed. The Tri-City Herald reported in September 2010: “The system should be ready in 2012 to use in Tank C-101 and then is planned to be moved to Tank C-105. Both are believed to have leaked in the past and have at least 200,000 gallons each of solid waste.” So far, this system has proven to be inadequate; i.e., a failure, while new leakages occurs. Read more on this attempt at: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2010/09/17/1172401/doe-developing-new-system-for.html#ixzz1TLgbDvPE

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]]>https://prayerdance.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/nuclear-mess-from-nuclear-power-plants-to-nuclear-weapons-disposal/feed/7prayerdanceThe Relevance of Deep Time by Joanna Macyhttps://prayerdance.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/the-relevance-of-deep-time-by-joanna-macy/
https://prayerdance.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/the-relevance-of-deep-time-by-joanna-macy/#respondSun, 26 Sep 2010 02:37:02 +0000http://prayerdance.wordpress.com/?p=218“The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world — we’ve actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other.” ~ Joanna Macy

The Relevance of Deep Time by Joanna Macy

People of today relate to time in a way that is surely unique in our history. The technologies and economic forces unleased by the Industrial Growth Society radically alter our experience of time. It is like being trapped in an ever-shrinking box, in which we race on a treadmill. The economy and its technologies depend on decisions made at lightning speed for short-term goals, cutting us off from nature’s rhythms and from the past and the future, as well. Marooned in the present, we are progressively blinded to the sheer ongoingness of time. Both the company of our ancestors and the claims of our descendants become less and less real to us.

This peculiar relation to time is inherently destructive of the quality and value of our lives, and of the living body of Earth. And it will intensify because the Industrial Growth Society is, in systems’ terms, on exponential “runaway”–accelerating toward its own collapse.

Even as we see its consequences, we must remember that this relation to time is not innate in us. As humans we have the capacity and the birthright to experience time in a saner fashion. Throughout history, men and women have labored at great personal cost to bequeath to future generations monuments of art and learning, to endure far beyond their individual lives. And they have honored through ritual and story those who came before

To make the transition to a life-sustaining society, we must retrieve that ancestral capacity–in other words, act like ancestors. We need to attune to longer, ecological rhythms and nourish a strong, felt connection with past and future generations. For us as agents of change, this isn’t easy, because to intervene in the political and legislative decisions of the Industrial Growth Society, we fall by necessity into its tempo. We race to find and pull the levers before it is too late to save this forest, or stop that weapons program. Nonetheless, we can learn again to drink at deeper wells.

We can enjoy a wider sense of identity than that prescribed by the Industrial Growth Society. It is both our birthright and our necessity for survival. Here are words from Arne Naess’ ground-breaking talk introducing the concept of the ecological self.

“For at least 2500 years, humankind has struggled with basic questions about who we are, what we are heading for, what kind of reality we are part of. Two thousand five hundred years is a short period in the lifetime of a species, and still less in the lifetime of the Earth, on whose surface we belong as mobile parts.

What I am going to say more or less in my own way, may roughly be condensed into the following six points:

1. We underestimate ourselves. I emphasize self. We tend to confuse it with the narrow ego.

2. Human nature is such that with sufficient all-sided maturity we cannot avoid “identifying” ourselves with all living beings, beautiful or ugly, big or small, sentient or not. I will elucidate my concept of identifying later.

3. Traditionally the maturity of the self develops through three stages–from ego to social self, and from social self to metaphysical self. In this conception of the process nature–our home, our immediate environment, where we belong as children–is largely ignored. I therefore tentatively introduce the concept of an ecological self. We may be in, of and for nature from our very beginning. Society and human relations are important, but our self is richer in its constitutive relations. These relations are not only relations we have with humans and the human community, but with the larger community of all living beings.

4. The joy and meaning of life is enhanced through increased self-realization, through the fulfillment of each being’s potential. Whatever the differences between beings, increased self-realization implies broadening and deepening of the self.

5. Because of an inescapable process of indentification with others, with growing maturity, the self is widened and deepened. We “see ourself in others”. Self-realization is hindered if the self-realization of others, with whom we identify, is hindered. Love of ourself will labor to overcome this obstacle by assisting in the self-realization of others according to the formula “live and let live.” Thus, all that can be achieved by altruism–the dutiful, moral consideration of others– can be achieved–and much more–through widening and deepening ourself. Following Immanuel Kant’s critique, we then act beautifully but neither morally nor immorally.

6. The challenge of today is to save the planet from further devastation which violates both the enlightened self-interest of humans and nonhumans, and decreases the potential of joyful existence for all.”

……

I have another important reason for inviting people to think in terms of deepening and widening their selves, starting with narrow ego gratification as the crudest, but inescapable starting point. It has to do with the notion usually placed as the opposite of egoism, namely the notion of altruism. The Latin term ego has as its opposite the alter. Altruism implies that ego sacrifices its interest in favour of the other, the alter. The motivation is primarily that of duty; it is said that we ought to love others as strongly as we love ourself.

What humankind is capable of loving from mere duty or more generally from moral exhortation is, unfortunately, very limited. From the Renaissance to the Second World War about four hundred cruel wars have been fought by Christian nations, usually for the flimsiest of reasons. It seems to me that in the future more emphasis has to be given to the conditions which naturally widen and deepen our self. With a sufficiently wide and deep sense of self, ego and alter as opposites are eliminated stage by stage as the distinctions are transcended.

Early in life, the social self is sufficiently developed so that we do not prefer to eat a big cake alone. We share the cake with our family and friends. We identify with these people sufficiently to see our joy in their joy, and to see our disappointment in theirs. Now is the time to share with all life on our maltreated earth by deepening our identification with all life-forms, with the ecosystems, and with Gaia, this fabulous old planet of ours.”

~ From “Self Realization: An Ecological Approach to Being in the World,” Thinking Life A Mountain, with John Seed, Joanna Macy & Pat Fleming, New Society, 1988.

All experiences and life forms cannot be proven to exist independently of their being a presence before your mind, just like a lucid dream.

All that is has me–universal creativity, pure and total presence, as its root. How things appear is my being. How things arise is my manifestation. Sounds and words heard are my messages expressed in sounds and words.

All the capacities, forms, and pristine awareness’s of the Buddha’s; the bodies of sentient beings, their habituations, and so forth, all environments and their inhabitants, life forms, and experiences, are the primordial state of pure and total presence.

Not realizing that everything is nothing other than the manifestation of one’s mind is called samsara.

Without understanding me, the creativity of the universe, but investigating the phenomena that I manifest, You perceive everything dualistically due to your attachment and longing. Impermanent, apparitional things will fade away. They are aimless, like a blind man.

Accustom yourself to this nondual reality where the duality of mind and that, which appears before mind, is like a dream.

All that is experienced and your own mind is the unique primary reality. They cannot be conceptualized according to the cause and effect systems of thought. Investigate your mind’s real nature, so that your pure and total presence will actually shine forth.

The concrete states of matter, solids, liquids, and so forth—should be examined in this way. Remaining for ten days where no otherness can be found, you will realize that not even an atom’s worth of anything exists that is separate from pure and total presence. Realizing that, you will certainly be free from all fabricated obsession with the otherness of objects. Moreover, the very being of what is experienced externally, in being an essenceless, open dimension, is shown to be the state of pure and total presence.

In being the variety of unceasing experience, it is shown to be the play of pure and total presence. This is not the same as claiming that whatever you experience is mental because what you experience is not a mental event but arises as the play of the state of pure and total presence. That claim does not distinguish between mind and the state of pure and total presence. The state of pure and total presence is the clear light, the pure fact of awareness, non-conceptual ever-fresh awareness; whereas mind is the motivating factor of samsara: pervasive conceptualization.

As “The Two Truths” says:

Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara.

Whenever the state of pure and total presence is recognized, mind and mental events cease. Mind is objectification; pure and total presence does not objectify. Therefore, even the subject who is held to be mental is also seen to be the originally pure state of being.

Experience is Open-Dimensional [Open-Being]

Because we are unagitated within, there is no object to seek within.
Since there is no attachment to an object, there is no object to seek as a support.
With the [objectless non-dual] compassion that does not arise, does not cease, and is selfless [all abiding compassion], being for others is always available.
It does not need to be brought about [It is natural and uncontrived]

Therefore, examine this present mindful awareness internally, externally, and in between. First, where does it come from? Where does it rest now? Finally, where does it go? Can you determine its color or shape? Wherever this awareness is present, is it an object, which appears externally? Is it one of the psychological constituents of a person? Does it exist? Somewhere in between? Since you have not found this awareness by examining and analyzing what appears externally or internally, you ought to conclude that even the ten essential aspects of tantra” are also not found upon inquiry. When you investigate whether perspective, meditation, commitment, charismatic activity, mandala, empowerment, stages of cultivation, paths

To traverse, obstacles to purify, pristine awareness’s, or Buddha Activity exist in their own right or are founded on something else and do not find any of these to exist in reality, this is known as “The great transcendent non-meditation, the real significance of the ten primordially pure aspects of tantra.”

Although many people will claim that they are not surprised, I’m surprised that some of these articles that expose the Swine Flu hoax came out at all. Although the Europeans are far ahead of the US in this regard, even after the European reports were published, ABC News and the Washington Post articles remain “unconvinced”, while ending up defending the WHO and placing any accountability to the wind. In fact, it seems to me that the two links that ere given were justifications of WHO. How convenient for corporate owned propaganda outlets. Shit happens!

The ABC link said:

<i>Addressing concerns that the pandemic was declared to profit pharmaceutical companies, Barry said that “if anything WHO was slow to make that call. And if you know anything about the history of the influenza virus, again it had no option. 1918 saw a very mild spring wave, quite comparable to what we experienced in 2009. It turned virulent months later.”

“This is a classic case of 20-20 hindsight, with some witch hunting thrown in,” Barry said.

Dr. John Treanor, a vaccine expert at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in Rochester, N.Y., agreed that WHO’s preparations were justified.

“I think even the authors [of the BMJ report] would have to agree that there really was no choice here but to prepare for a pandemic,” he said. “If there had been a severe pandemic and there had been no preparations, the outcome (and the outcry) would have been far worse.”

World Health Organization and H1N1 Flu Although some of the WHO’s advisors received compensation from manufacturers of the same antivirals and vaccines recommended for use during the H1N1 pandemic, Treanor noted that there are few options available for combating influenza.

“You can tweak the plans how much antivirals, what kinds, where is the vaccine coming from, who should be vaccinated first, should you close schools, etc. but the basic elements are going to be the same,” he said. “So I don’t see the argument here as whether WHO made the right recommendation at the time, regardless of who was advising them they clearly did.”

“WHO would say categorically that it believes that it has not been subject to undue conflict-of-interest. We know that some experts that come to our committees have contact with industry. It would be surprising if they didn’t because the best experts are sought by all organizations,” Hartl said. “We feel that the guidelines produced were certainly not subject to undue influence.”

Several other experts also defended the agency.

“Twenty-twenty hindsight can always second guess the decisions of public health officials,” said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health, a private nonprofit group. “But this kind of condemnation of public health officials who made the most prudent decisions based on available knowledge could well backfire in future emergencies: I fear that public health officials will draw the lesson that they should wait for greater scientific certainty before responding in the future — and we could pay for that overcaution with many lives lost.”

Plain and simple, the European media who have universal single payer non-profit medicine informs, while the US media which has a for profit disease care system supplies dumb me down, disinformation. Further, I think that blaming WHO is rather self-serving, counter-productive, and palliative/symptomatic. It is self-serving, in the way that a guilty person will point to blame another. In a democracy, there is no one else to hold accountable except the people. If the people are misled, then its up to them to become informed. less they continue their own exploitation. Worse, if people know better, but remain passive, silent, and inactive, they simply cooperate as co-conspirators with the abomination, the deception, fraud, and exploitation. like all the other scammers and spammers.

Yes, we could sure blame others, the FDA, the government (us), the sold out media, the sold out two party system, TV, air pollution, or UFOs, but again in a “free” country it is regulation by and of the people, not a free lunch for the criminals.

A case in point is that a close relative works as a therapist in two hospitals. Both hospitals required the H1N1 swine flu vaccinations for all employees. Fortunately they allowed (this time) for an opt-out (otherwise my relative would have quit). The opt-out was that she had to wear a n95 surgical mask during her work day. Except for one other employee in her department, everyone else opted for the h1n1 flu shot. Ultimately who pays? The taxpayer and the patients pay, as costs are always passed on to the consumer. My relative has received notice this week that the H1N1 flu season is not officially over and that she still has to wear the mask. I take that as punitive, but then I don’t own the medical colleges, the certifying agencies, the FDA, the AMA/CMA, or mask agencies, rather Big Pharma does.

So “WHO” wins this round? Big Pharma wins, police state agencies who now have numerous wide ranging laws on the books win, where they can now implement police state preventative detention in case of self declared medical emergencies, self serving power hungry bureaucrats win, the FDA, Homeland Security, Big Pharma, and the n95 maskers to name a few.

In short, blaming WHO, does not displace taking responsibility in a democracy. You can’t blame the fox (WHO, AMA, Big Pharma, FDA, etc) for entering the chicken coop; rather you have to get brand new incorruptible chicken coop guards or you will be outta business. I’ll agree that the United Nations is a sham, but those who have been shafted have to come up with some real solutions, rather than continue to blame and whine. We no longer can afford whipping boys and scapegoats.

If the US corporate media is not going to inform the populace, Americans have to kick the habit, while supporting or in sometimes creating viable, honest, and incorruptible alternatives.

Council of Europe condemns “unjustified scare” over swine flu

News

Council of Europe condemns “unjustified scare” over swine flu

Adrian O’Dowd

1 London

The Council of Europe has heavily criticised the World HealthOrganization, national governments, and EU agencies for theirhandling of the swine flu pandemic.

The parliamentary assembly of the council—the internationalorganisation that protects human rights and the rule of lawin Europe—published a draft of a report that reviewedhow the H1N1 pandemic was handled.

National governments, WHO, and EU agencies had all been guiltyof actions that led to a “waste of large sums of public money,and unjustified scares and fears about the health risks facedby the European public,” says the report.

The conclusion came in the parliamentary assembly’s social,health and family affairs committee report published on 4 June.

The report was prepared by Paul Flynn, socialist member of theassembly and Labour MP for Newport West and approved by thecommittee ahead of a plenary debate at the end of this month.It says there was overwhelming evidence that the seriousnessof the pandemic was vastly over-rated by WHO, which led to adistortion of public health priorities.

Presenting his report at a committee meeting in Paris, Mr Flynnsaid, “This was a pandemic that never really was.”

The committee said there were “grave shortcomings” in the transparencyof decision making about the outbreak, which generated concernsabout the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on decisionstaken.

In particular, WHO and European health institutions were notwilling to publish the names and declarations of interest ofthe members of the WHO emergency committee and relevant Europeanadvisory bodies directly involved in recommendations concerningthe pandemic, the committee said.

This anxiety was in line with concerns raised by the BMJ inits investigation into how the pandemic was handled (BMJ 2010;340:c2912,3 June doi:10.1136/bmj.c2912).

The joint BMJ and Bureau of Investigative Journalism investigationfound that key scientists advising the WHO on planning for aflu pandemic had done paid work for drug firms that stood togain from the guidance these scientists were preparing.

WHO’s advice led to governments around the world stockpilingbillions of dollars worth of antiviral drugs as part of globalpandemic preparations, but these conflicts of interest havenot been publicly disclosed by the WHO.

Fiona Godlee, BMJ editor-in-chief, attended the committee meetingin Paris and addressed the parliamentarians. She said, “Keyguidance from WHO—on the need to stockpile antivirals,on the effectiveness of flu vaccines, and on pandemic flu ingeneral—was authored by experts being paid by industry.

“Given the huge public cost and private profit from the flupandemic, the existence of these conflicts of interest is ofgrave concern, more so because WHO has not been transparentabout them.

“WHO’s credibility has been seriously damaged by theseevents. Restoring credibility is crucial if WHO is to serveits proper function as the world’s most trusted technicaland policy organisation.”

In the council’s report, Mr Flynn took a closer look athow the pandemic was handled in three countries—the UK,France and Poland—because these countries showed someof the most extreme reactions to the announcement of the pandemicin June 2009.

The UK’s Department of Health initially announced thatabout 65 000 deaths were to be expected. At the beginning of2010, this estimate was downgraded to only 1000 fatalities.

By January 2010, fewer than 5000 people had been registeredas having caught the disease and 360 deaths had been recorded.France also overstated the pandemic and initially ordered 94million doses of vaccine. It managed to cancel orders for 50million doses of vaccine, but was left with millions of unnecessarydoses as only 5.7 million people were vaccinated by March 2010.The final French public health bill for vaccines amounted to365m (£300m; $435m).

Conversely, Poland is one of the few countries in Europe notto have purchased large quantities of vaccines because of safetyfears and distrust of the drug companies producing them, saysthe report.

The Council of Europe’s committee report sets out a seriesof urgent recommendations for greater transparency and bettergovernance in public health.

Harvey Fineberg, President of the Institute of Medicine of theUS National Academy of Sciences and chair of the WHO committeereview into the management of the H1N1 Pandemic and functioningof the International Health Regulations, welcomed the BMJ investigationand the Council of Europe report.

“These reports raise questions about potential, inappropriateinfluences on WHO decision making in the assessment and responseto the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and, more generally, question practicesemployed by WHO to guard against conflict of interest amongits expert advisers,” he said. “These topics are among thosethat will be fully considered by our review committee. At ourupcoming meeting in Geneva (30 June to 2 July 2010) we anticipatehearing from critics of WHO as well as from those who were involvedfrom the public and private sectors, at national and internationallevels, and in policy and decision making related to the H1N1pandemic.”